Stories by Meriana Johnsen

Midwives have shared how they were not included in decisions by Oranga Tamariki to remove babies from their whānau, in the latest report by the Children's Commissioner.

The Crown has been accused of yet again ignoring Māori rights to the foreshore and seabed in response to its submissions on a ironsand mining civil appeal before the Supreme Court.

Te Pae Oranga was supposed to keep Māori out of court, but new figures show tangata whenua aren't buying into it, leading to calls for the programme to be redesigned.

Iwi justice panels in Wellington have credited strong relationships with police and support services at their fingertips for the region's success. Video

Māori social service providers are pushing for ministries like Corrections to start putting money into Whānau Ora to improve outcomes for Māori.

The te reo Māori Waitangi Tribunal claim in the 1980s should have been about the "value of the reo for all," Justice Joe Williams, who was on the legal team for the landmark case, says.

New Zealand's export market has been "well-positioned" to ensure Māori unemployment doesn't get much worse, a Māori trade organisation has said.

A significant drop in the number of Māori infants getting vaccinated on time has the head of the immunisation advisory concerned there will be an increase in hospitalisations for serious illnesses.

The new Assistant Māori Commissioner for Children has laid down the wero (challenge) for Oranga Tamariki to commit to eliminating racism in her first day on the job.

Ngāi Tahu has taken legal action against the Crown to assert its rights over freshwater in the South Island, saying it has tried to engage with successive governments on the issue but has been…

An investigative journalist who has extensively written about how Māori children end up in state care has told the Waitangi Tribunal that Oranga Tamariki are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff…

Any Māori-run alternative to Oranga Tamariki must not just turn a "white bureaucracy to a brown bureaucracy", former wards of the state say.

The Waitangi Tribunal has been told the taking of Māori babies just after birth is "cruel and inhumane" as it targets the mother when she is at her weakest.

The Māori Women's Welfare League has told the Waitangi Tribunal that Māori initiatives to reduce the number of tamariki in their care have been short-lived because the Crown has all the control.

A kaumātua has told the Waitangi Tribunal "cultural sovereignty" should be the foundation for making Oranga Tamariki compliant with Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Social workers have told the Waitangi Tribunal that Māori staff were not promoted because Oranga Tamariki do not value Māori knowledge.

The Waitangi Tribunal has heard how the parents of a newborn baby had no contact with Oranga Tamariki before police officers raided their home looking for the child.

A group of 20 Ngāpuhi protesters occupying private land in the Bay of Islands are trying stop a housing development on a site they say is wāhi tapu.

A polling station in the middle of Wellington has been called the "friendliest place" you can cast a vote, with bilingual staff, kai and waiata.

Māori have been "turning out in droves" to cast their vote early, with advance voting numbers almost double that on last election.

The Labour-incumbent for Hauraki-Waikato, Nanaia Mahuta, is set to breeze into another term in the seat, as her Māori Party opponent trails her in the polls by a whopping 47 percent.

A pro-euthanasia campaign group has welcomed polls showing just more than half of voters on the Māori roll support the End of Life Choice Bill.

A Māori Party candidate was one of four people arrested for trespassing while trying to stop survey work for a roading development in southern Hamilton today.

It looks like South versus West Auckland in the battle for Tāmaki Makaurau electorate.